Tag: ori feibush

Over at reddit/philadelphia, user alphadoodledoo responded to a Daily News article about the recent vandalism of OCF Coffee Shop in Point Breeze. Two windows were broken in the early morning hours before a protest march was planned, in part, against OCF and its owner Ori Feibush. In the Daily News piece, Feibush said he was “100 percent certain” the damage to the shop had been done by a member of the group leading the march. “The idea that it’s not is almost laughable,” he said.

alphadoodledoo wasn’t laughing. He pointed out that the vandal was wearing a mask and clothing that obscured any identifying details. Then he wrote:

As we said here, Saturday’s protest by the Point Breeze Organizing Committee and its sympathizers was peaceful. Property photographer Laura Kicey took photos of the crowd, the signs, the speakers and performers, and one very tiny drummer in training.

Saturday was the Point Breeze Organizing Committee’s march against OCF Realty, and as you’ll see from our photos, which we’ll have up soon, it was very peaceful. Yet early that morning someone in the neighborhood smashed a hole in one window of the local OCF Realty coffee shop, and took another window out almost completely–acts that runs counter to the PBOC’s nonviolent mandate.

Point Breeze Organizing Committee (PBOC), the group that believes that developer Ori Feibush and his company, OCF Realty, is trying to take over the neighborhood, now alleges Feibush has falsely attributed moronic written remarks to Gary Broderick, one of the group’s de facto leaders. They say Feibush did this by creating fake Facebook chats with Broderick and then showed them to others. The group then created a strike-back video in which an organizer reads a Cease and Desist letter articulating Feibush’s alleged misdeeds.

Of course, the video isn’t exactly standard legal practice. So Broderick has also sent out a letter looking for legal help, which made its way to the desk of ACLU staff attorney Mary Catherine Roper. She then forwarded it to a list of “fellow NLGers” (members of the National Lawyers Guild of Philadelphia ) saying, “If you can help Gary, please contact him.”

Ori Feibush, the developer who owns OCF Realty, has had a contentious relationship with some of his neighbors in Point Breeze, where he’s been aiming much of his development energies. It’s the oldest story in the book: new developer vs. long-time residents–only in this case not all long-time residents are against Feibush’s efforts and some of his newest and fiercest opponents are just as new to the neighborhood as he is.

With the emergence of the group called Point Breeze Organizing Committee (PBOC), what seemed like a typical beautification vs. gentrification debate (Feibush saying he was doing the former; long-timers saying it was the latter) has gotten kind of muddled. In comparison, an early community meeting in which the developer was called a “white devil” seems almost quaint.

Traces of the past on a wooden chair at the Church of the Assumption, now scheduled for demolition. Photo: Liz Spikol

Point Breeze developer Ori Feibush stirred some controversy this month when his lawyer, Wally Zimilong, sent a letter to a woman, Haley Dervinis, opposed to his latest project: four single-family homes around 20th and Annin. The letter cautioned her not to libel or slander Feibush with disparaging comments in an upcoming zoning hearing, and was, to our eyes, a fairly ridiculous cease-and-desist scare tactic. It worked–she was scared. The letter got press as a threat, and Feibush came off as a bully trying to censor her.

At the hearing, Dervinis was certainly not alone in her opposition, and now, according to Jan Ransom of the Daily News, the Zoning Board has denied Feibush’s petition to go beyond the current zoning, which is for three homes rather than four.

Point Breeze developer Ori Feibush is at odds with fellow resident Haley Dervinis over Feibush’s plan to build four homes on 20th Street, where Dervinis’ home is. He says she’s made defamatory comments about him on public forums. She says she’s just exercising free speech.

The Daily News’ Jan Ransom reports that Feibush’s attorney, Wally Zimolong, sent Dervinis a cease and desist letter to prevent her from pursuing “all wrongful conduct concerning the project,” including what Zimolong apparently worries will be potentially defamatory comments at today’s 2 p.m. Zoning Board of Adjustments meeting about Feibush’s plan. (The full text of Zimolong’s letter is at philadelinquency.com.)

Kenny Gamble’s attempt to demolish most of the historic Royal Theater on 15th and South, an African-American landmark, faces more than just the approval of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. It faces a state challenge that he himself put into place, according to Eyes on the Street: In 2006 Universal Companies was awarded a $50,000 Keystone [...]

Earlier this year, after Kenny Gamble’s Universal Companies put the crumbling Royal Theater on South Street up for sale, real estate agent and developer Ori Feibush made a bid for the derelict hulk, meeting the asking price of $3.2 million. Given the extent of the repairs that need to be made to stabilize, let alone [...]